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Accurate and complete bookkeeping is crucial to any business owner, but it’s also important to those who work with the business, such as investors, financial institutions, and employees. People both inside and outside the business all depend on a bookkeeper’s accurate recordings.

Bookkeeping For Dummies provides the easy and painless way to master this crucial art. You’ll be able to manage your own finances to save money and grow your business. This straightforward, no-nonsense guide shows you the basics of bookkeeping—from recording transactions to producing balance sheets and year-end reports. Discover how to:

This guide features tips and tricks for managing your business cash with your books and also profiles important accounts for any bookkeeper. There’s no question that bookkeepers must be detail-oriented, meticulous, and accurate. Bookkeeping For Dummies shows you how to keep track of your business’s financial well-being and ensure future success!

Product Description

Review

"...a good refresher for any professional who feels rusty on the basics." (Accounting Technician, May 2007)
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.

From the Back Cover

The painless way to master the art of bookkeeping!

Manage your own finances to save money and grow your business!

If you're a small business owner who manages your own finances, Bookkeeping For Dummies is for you. This friendly guide covers all the basics of bookkeeping  from recording transactions to producing balance sheets and year-end reports. It's the easy way to keep track of your business's financial well-being.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)

Amazon.com:
57 reviews

58 of 60 people found the following review helpful

Failed to explain bookkeeping.March 13 2011

By
Matt
- Published on Amazon.com

Format: Paperback
Verified Purchase

Don't waste your money on this book. There are much better explanations of bookkeeping available on the internet for free. Try googling "double entry bookkeeping tutorial".The primary reason I bought this book was to understand double entry bookkeeping: debits, credits, ledgers, journals, etc.Unfortunately, while the book addresses these topics, it does not explain them. For example, for debits & credits the best the author can do is print a table and basically ask the reader to memorize it. I don't want to memorize stuff. I want to understand the logic behind a system so that I can figure the details out on my own.The author also spends a lot of time explaining the process of closing the books at the end of an accounting period. She makes it sound so onerous and complicated that any reasonable person would conclude that it is better to just hire an accountant. Maybe the author is an accountant trying to drum up business?Another complaint I have with the book is that every example the author uses to illustrate bookkeeping involves a retail store. I bet most small businesses are not retail stores. The principles of accounting are basic, they apply to retail stores, service businesses, non-profits, governments, households. How about a variety of examples to show how the system works for these various types of entities?

101 of 110 people found the following review helpful

Gives you the basic start you need.Jan. 8 2006

By
John Matlock
- Published on Amazon.com

Format: Paperback

So you're going to start a business, and if you have any money left over at the end of the year you're going to save part of it and spend part of it. OK, but your business partner isn't going to like that very much. 'What, you say you don't have a business partner?' Yes, you do, and he usually goes by the initials IRS.

Since you're reading this review, you obviously have, or have access to a computer. Your first thought is to go buy an accounting package. OK, that's a good idea. But those packages start throwing around funny words like 'General Ledger,' 'Accrual,' and 'Balance Sheet.'

This book starts earlier than that and starts you off with a paper based accounting system. After you know what you are doing, then it discusses three accounting packages: Simply Accounting Pro, Peachtree Accounting, and QuickBooks. Hint: A lot of banks seem to like QuickBooks and may sell it to their customers at a deep discount, or even give away at no charge.

A Request to the Author, or to anyone else reading this. There are a bunch of free accounting systems on the net. Are any of them any good? Maybe one (or more) of them could be included in the next edition of the book, or on the eTips website.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful

Kindle version is for the UK!Jan. 3 2011

By
Norman H. Hansen
- Published on Amazon.com

Format: Kindle Edition
Verified Purchase

Watch out! The Kindle edition is the UK version! I started at the page for the paperback edition (published in the US), clicked on the Kindle edition and bought it. They're not the same!

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful

Great Book!July 17 2009

By
Brianne
- Published on Amazon.com

Format: Paperback
Verified Purchase

I am a Business Manager and I have read this book myself. I think it is an essential guide for anyone who is apart of a bookkeeping staff. It is a really good book that has the basics of accounting principals, but offers more information on supporting Accountants or Accounting Pros. I have given this book to others who are in Accounts Payable or Receivable positions or those who may want to understand their own personal financials. I highlighted throughout the book. Sometimes you forget the foundation to accounting and finance is bookkeeping. I found it to be a nice refresher/reminder. Worth the $$$

32 of 38 people found the following review helpful

Maybe I just have a mental block --Aug. 23 2007

By
B. Yarnold
- Published on Amazon.com

Format: Paperback

I'm a smart girl but I STILL cannot make heads or tails out of bookkeeping. Although I now understand credits and debits, the journal entering and what not just didn't make sense. The book seemed to be too general for me. I really needed more detailed, beginner-friendly information and guidance. Maybe if you have a general idea of how bookkeeping works, this book will work for you. I, on the other hand, bought this book having absolutely no knowledge of bookkeeping, and unfortunately, I still don't.